science · 31 March 1822 · 202 years ago
birth
Born 31 Mar 1822; died 21 May 1897 at age 75.
Johann Friedrich Theodor Müller was a German entomologist, botanist and zoologist whose important work was done in Brazil. In his field, he was among the most respected scientists of the nineteenth century. In fact, Charles Darwin called him the “prince of observers,” and trusted his opinions. Karl Haeckel was influenced by him. Müller embraced natural selection and contributed greatly to the emerging studies of evolutionary biology. An obituary in Nature asked “whether any other naturalist, save Darwin himself, has given the world so large and original a mass of observations of the kind by which natural selection has been most strongly supported.” He published these prolifically about insects, animals and plants. Today, his name is given in the term Müllerian mimicry whereby natural selection favors a toxic species with similar appearance to another toxic species that predators avoid.
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